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ESSAY OF THE WEEK |
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Question
The following appeared in the business section of a local newspaper:
"The City has converted 200 metered parking spaces downtown to permit-only parking spaces. The spaces will be given to Startup Company as part of the incentive package that enticed the company to locate its headquarters downtown. Eventually, Startup is expected to expand its City office, employing about 800 people by the year 2010. Although the City has a waiting list for 700 spaces in City lots, which are currently full, the City Council approved the measure, saying that the ability to provide parking downtown is critical for attracting and keeping businesses."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument.
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| Amol Waidande: 3/30/2009 |
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The argument is well reasoned,as the company Startup had opened up its office downtown. The office needed ths parking space.
It is justifiable that the government is taking all the measures to make sure the parking space is allocated.This will cause less trouble to the employed people. |
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Reference Essay |
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The justification made by the City Council for converting 200 parking spaces from metered to permit-only use is somewhat misleading. The City's apparent concern is that the lack of parking downtown will negatively affect its ability to attract and retain businesses to the downtown area.
In fact, the downtown area is popular, as evidenced by the fact that there is a demand for 700 more employee parking spaces than the City can currently supply. Startup's agreement to locate downtown has created an initial demand for 200 more spaces, and a total demand for 800 spaces by the year 2010. Attracting businesses to the downtown area does not seem to be the City's problem. The argument offered by the City Council would have been stronger if the City Council had offered evidence to suggest that businesses were moving out of the downtown area because parking for their employees or customers was unavailable.
Further, the article does not indicate that parking is generally unavailable in the downtown area, but instead only states that the city-owned lots are full. Private businesses or parking lots may be plentiful in the downtown area. The City Council's argument would have been stronger if the article had indicated the total number of parking spaces available downtown in city-owned lots, private lots and on-street parking.
Based upon the information in the passage, the reader cannot conclude that the City Council was justified in converting the metered spaces to permit-only parking. The facts do not seem to support the City Council's actions.
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